'Foxcatcher' cast wrestled with fear of Steve Carell

The New York Film Festival premiere of "Foxcatcher" brought out the movie's stars, who all agreed that the set was definitely not a chuckle-fest.

"It was intense, it was dark," said Steve Carell, who is extraordinarily creepy as John du Pont. "It wasn't a happy, sort of glib set. I think everyone took it very seriously, in part because everyone felt there was real responsibility to the story."

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The movie, directed by Bennett Miller, is based on the real-life story of Dave and MarkSchultz , brothers and Olympic gold-medal wrestlers, and their ultimately tragic relationship with du Pont, their multi-millionaire benefactor.

Mark Ruffalo, who plays Dave Schultz, told Confidential that Carell gave him the heebie-jeebies on set.

"Everyone sort of stayed away from him," he explained. "John du Pont was repellent, so the way they designed Steve's look, it made him repellent and you didn't know what to say to him or how to act around him. You never felt comfortable."

The "Avengers" actor also confessed that "Foxcatcher" was the toughest shoot he's ever done. "We didn't have any heat in the gym, so it was always f------ cold. We were always working out when we weren't shooting. We stayed in really humble hotels in places where there was not a lot of money outside of what you saw on the screen, so it was meager and it was tough."

"You can't half-wrestle credibly on film," he continued. "It's not like a stunt man throwing a punch. You have to go 100% to make it credible, and so it was grueling and it was taxing and I'm too old to be doing this!"

Vanessa Redgrave, who plays du Pont's mother, Jean, skipped interviews but exclaimed, "There he is!" when she spied her grandson, Micheál Neeson, waiting for her with a pal. She immediately rushed over to give him a big kiss. Bradley Cooper, attending the screening along with director Spike Jonze, wore a baseball cap and kept his head down in an attempt to go unrecognized.

Afterwards the cast partied at Henry, a Liquor Bar at the Hudson Hotel. Model Cara Delevingne entered the bash with a ski mask covering her face but turned it into a hat once inside. She was spotted hanging out with Cooper (who was there sans his girlfriend, model Suki Waterhouse) and Ed Norton. Everyone wondered why Channing Tatum, who plays Mark Schultz, was a no-show.